The components of an automobile are connected together in many different ways. One type of connection uses a fastener, such as a bolt or screw.
The packaging space in vehicles is often very limited due to the number of components used to assemble the vehicle, the size of the vehicle, and the like. Some of the area between components, such as a B-pillar and an appliqué, is very limited. This requires some of the fastener designs to be very small. Typically, one type of connector used for retaining two components is a molded “doghouse.” A doghouse is generally a molded-in feature which is used to attach a secondary clip, or the doghouse is used for driving a threaded screw.
Molded-in features, such as a doghouse, often cause a “read” condition on the show surface of a part due to differences in cooling temperatures between the feature and the substrate caused by differences in mass/volume of the resin. A read condition is a deformation or imperfection in a surface. The limited space also causes a tooling condition that is very fragile due to the reduced size. A feature of the type described above has a minimum workable size which does not facilitate the doghouse having suitable strength. The size of the part and the proximity of adjacent features limit the packaging space and travel of movable feature (lifters) in the mold. Certain design requirements also include a threaded primary fastener which dictates a secondary fastener of the type that accepts a screw. Current designs include a molded “boss” which is threadable, but tends to cause a read condition as discussed above, and also tends to break, increasing scrap during manufacturing.
Other designs have been created in an attempt to solve the aforementioned problems. One such design is insert molding of the threaded fasteners. Another design has incorporated the use of a “U-nut” or “J-nut,” which are spring steel nuts that require a molded feature. A third attempted design is a molded in boss which is threadable by means of a self-tapping primary fastener. Another design has separately molded doghouses with adhesive backing applied to the part, which designs also lack suitable strength and do not meet space limitations in current low profile designs. However, none of these designs overcome the aforementioned problems. In another, a typical molded integral doghouse with a standard plastic winged clip is on the back side of a molded part and will generally produce visible defects on the finished side of the part. The low profile packaging space also does not provide for a robust tooling condition for a conventional molded doghouse.
Other design requirements are necessitating very low profile exterior ornamentations that present extremely low profile attachment challenges in order to attach to a component body. The packaging space provided in low profile designs is also not toolable from an injection molding perspective. Virtually all applications require tolerance control in the attachment. This requires either the attachment to move freely 360 degrees directionally (one plane) or must limit the free movement to just two directions (one plane). Current body attachments do not provide low profile designs that meet all of the aforementioned criteria simultaneously.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a retainer assembly which provides a suitable connection between an appliqué and a part, such as an A-pillar, B-pillar, or C-pillar of an automobile.